Water Strategies for the Next Administration: New Major U.S. Water Policy Recommendations

Published: November 4, 2016
Author: Peter Gleick
Pages: 2

This article identifies major water-related challenges facing the United States and offers explicit recommendations for strategies the next administration and Congress should pursue, domestically and internationally.

Growing links between water conflicts and threats to U.S. national security.

The failure to provide safe, affordable water to all Americans.

The worsening threat of climate change for U.S. water resources.

The article offers recommendations in each of these areas and suggests that water policy offers an opportunity for bipartisan agreement. The report’s author, Dr. Peter Gleick, says “National water issues have been sadly neglected for far too long. The new administration has many opportunities to build a 21st century national water system with broad public support. During the 2016 campaign, both presidential candidates have indicated their backing for clean water and concern over recent water-quality problems in cities like Flint, Michigan.”

Among the recommendations in the Science Policy Forum piece are a call for a bipartisan water commission to make specific policy suggestions to Congress and the White House; an expansion of national efforts to collect, manage, and share water data; modernization of federal water-quality laws; testing for lead and other contaminants in every school in the country and remediation of any problems; new incentives for improved urban and agricultural water use technologies; an expansion of diplomatic efforts to reduce water conflicts; a boost in resources available for domestic and international programs to provide safe water and sanitation for all; and the integration of climate science into water management and planning at federal agencies and facilities.